1(38 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. L 



a little of our gas occasionally, and improve- 

 ment in his writings is noticeable. Somnam- 

 bulist, of the Proijressive, orders largely: and 

 Hasty, of the Review, has a regular monthly 

 bag. But there's Jake Smith. He gives me 

 big orders right along. Why, I believe that 

 fellow is like some of the above towns spoken 

 of— all gas." 



" Why," said I, " IMr. Jones, Jake has skip- 

 ped the country. He does not write for the 

 papers any more." 



"Yes, he does; but it's under another name. 

 Let me whisper in your ear" (and we hitched 

 our chairs together in the corner of the room). 



" Hal ha! Is that so? Then Jake Smith is—" 



"Sh— I don't mention it; but he is the best 

 customer for gas all the same. Now, Mr. Ram- 

 bler, while we're on the subject, don't you wish 

 to buy some for your Rambles— tone "em up a 

 little, you know?" 



" No, thank you, Mr. Jones. I never used the 

 imponderable substance, and don't believe I 

 shall use it now. No, sir; no gas in Rambles." 



It was quite late when we returned to the 

 Oakland side of the bay; and as we rested in 

 our camp it was sweet dreams of fair women 

 and laughing-eyed children that floated through 

 the dreams of the Rambler. 



QUEENS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES, AND HOW THEY 

 HAVE BEEN OVERCOME. 



By G. M. DooUttle. 



As will be found in back volumes of Glean- 

 ings, I sent the first queen that ever started in 

 the mails, from this country for Australia or 

 New Zealand, in August, 1884, the same arriv- 

 ing in New Zealand alive, although she died 

 soon after landing, before she could be intro- 

 duced. My next trial proved a failure, as, at 

 that time, I did not know the running time of 

 the steamers plying between here and that 

 country. The partial success of this first ven- 

 ture, if it might be called a success at all, 

 stimulated me to experiment further along the 

 line of shipping queens to foreign countries, 

 and the next tried was to Scotland, Ireland, 

 and Jamaica, West Indies. About fifty per 

 cent of these went alive, which gave me still 

 more faith in the project of mailing queens long 

 distances. That my faith might be strengthen- 

 ed, and that I might establish something defi- 

 nite in regard to the matter, I began experi- 

 menting here at home. I went to work and made 

 cages of different patterns, provisioned them 

 to the best of my knowledge, placed in them 

 bees of all ages, together with a young vigor- 

 ous queen, and then placed these cages in my 

 shop and elsewhere, coming as near the con- 

 ditions which they must meet in going long 

 distances as was possible, hoping to prove 

 something definite in the matter. Some were 



placed in the loft to the shop, where they would 

 be in a sweltering heat a part of the time— this 

 to represent what they must endure in passing 

 through the torrid zone, while others were left 

 out in the sun, and still others in a fairly com- 

 fortable place in the shop. Some of the cages 

 were provisioned with honey, but the most of 

 them with the Good candy. Some were wrap- 

 ped up closely in a leather bag, to represent 

 what the mail-bag would be to them, while 

 others were not wrapped up at all. Some were 

 tossed about nearly every day, and even 

 thrown across the shop, to represent the throw- 

 ing of mail-bags off a train while in full mo- 

 tion, while others were handled only once a 

 week. Some cages were thoroughly ventilated, 

 and others allowed very little ventilation. In 

 this way I sacrificed some 1.5 or 20 queens, and 

 conducted these experiments through several 

 months. The result was, that the average 

 living time of the bees and queens was about 18 

 days, while no queen in those tried lived over 

 26 days. The workers would usually begin to 

 die in from 12 to 20 days; and after they com- 

 menced to die they went rapidly. After all the 

 workers were dead the queen would soon die; 

 and in no case, during these experiments, did I 

 have a queen live over three days after all of 

 the workers were dead. From these experi- 

 ments I settled down to the conclusion that it 

 was useless to try to send queens by mail where 

 the trip would take more than 2() days, so did 

 not try to send them a greater distance than 

 3(XX) or 4000 miles. 



In 1891 I received several orders for queens 

 from Australia, the parties saying. "Try the 

 thing and see how it will turn out." I did 

 so. and the result proved far better than any of 

 my experiments here at home, for I succeeded 

 in getting over there alive about n.i per cent of 

 thosp sent, none of which were less than 3(5 days 

 en route, this being ten days longer than the 

 best one in the experiment lived. Here is 

 something I can not understand — why bees 

 and queens will live longer while in transit 

 than they will when being experimented upon, 

 and not traveling half a mile, all told. 



In one of the cages sent in 1891 I put 35 bees, 

 and every bee in this cage, excepting two, 

 arrived at its destination alive, being 38 days 

 in the cage. This success of 1891 gave me new 

 courage; so when the time came to send queens 

 to Australia in 1892 I started them with quite 

 an assurance of success; but, lol when the re- 

 ports were all in I found, instead of 6.5 per 

 cent alive, or better, as I had hoped, that 3.5 

 per cent was the best I could bring the figures 

 to, while the results of 1893 came near discour- 

 aging me entirely, as that year 8 per cent was 

 all that reached their destination alive, in spite 

 of all the pains and precaution I took in put- 

 ting them up. During the spring of 1894 I put 

 considerable thought into the matter, as I had 

 quite a good many orders for queens from New 



